You Pay Only: $7.98 Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0089218627698
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Alpha Video
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Alpha Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 15, 2003
Sales Rank: 87350
Studio: Alpha Video
Theatrical Release Date: January 21, 1933
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - If you are willing..........
This is not a bad film. In fact, it's a good little film. Instead of shelling out 9.oo for a great little film (under an hour), go over to [...] and watch it and download it for free. They also have got another Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray chiller classic, The horror of the Wax Museum over there.
Rating:  - Meh.
The Vampire Bat (Frank R. Strayer, 1933)
Fay Wray's name will be writ large in history as long as films exist for her part in 1933's King Kong; the same cannot be said of the other ten films in which she appeared in 1933, of which the lame, talky, and entirely unsuspenseful The Vampire Bat is one.
The story takes place in a small German village where people are dying with all the requisite symptoms of vampiric infestation; the town's burgermeister (Lionel Belmore) is convinced there's a vampire at work. The skeptical chief of police (Melvyn Douglas) dismisses this as frippery and sets out to look for a more mundane sort of murderer, at least when he's not off playing in the bushes with his lady love (Fay Wray), the assistant to the town's most prominent doctor (Lionel Atwill). Both the burgermeister and the police chief, through separate means, come to suspect the same person: Herman (Dwight Frye), a somewhat slow chap who has a penchant for the theft of apples and an appreciation for beauty in the female form that is not always appropriately masked.
Strayer and screenwriter Edward T. Lowe don't seem to have been able to decide if they wanted to make a horror picture or a comedic mystery here, and the film doesn't transfer nearly as well between states as does, say, The Old Dark House (on whose set much of this picture was filmed; those who have seen Whale's film will certainly recognize the doctor's house). It's certainly worth watching for Melvyn Douglas, ... Read More
Rating:  - splendidly inane
I got this to watch with my son, who is at the age when he is becoming enamoured of monsters and creepy stories, in addition to sci-fi. We both enjoyed it for the atmosphere - in a superstitious "Bavaria", yet with normal british dress clothes and accents. There are a seies of mysterious deaths, marked by two puncture wounds on the necks of victims. The villagers focus their fear and wrath on a retarded man (Dwight Frye), who seems to appear around the victims prior to their deaths and who openly loves bats as "warm like cats." Needless to say, the plot takes unexpected turns and is impossible to predict! The young Faye Wray is also a treat, just before she became a b-movie star in King Kong. There are pretty good characters, including her intrepid cop boyfriend, who erfuses to believe the vampire theory though begins to doubt his doubt. Then, there is the throbbing dirt-like thing - what happened to it?
Great viewing fun: this is the kind of film I watched as a kid late at night at sleepovers. Now I share it with my son, who avidly watches them with me. It doesn't get better than that!
Rating: - Lacks Teeth
This movie begins much like other vampire movies from the 1930's. There are the stocks in trade of similar movies: much of the film takes place in a European village, Klineschloss, superstitious villagers run about muttering "vampire," much of the film takes place at night, a whacky character that looks like he could be Dracula's sidekick slinks about, and there are men of science preaching rationality. The only unusual feature is a more detailed than usual love story.
The most important attribute of any vampire movie is bodies without blood. You may check that item off on your list. We have bodies without blood; spooky! There must be a vampire running about, right? We see spooky bats in the trees. Oh my, there is a vampire somewhere!
Then there is Herman Gleib, played by Dwight Frye, whose version of Renfield in 1931's "Dracula" remains one of the best. Herman's character in this movie is much like Renfield, and is yet another indication of a vampire lurking about.
The most un-vampire-like part of this movie is the relationship between Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas, "The Old Dark House," which provided the interiors for this film, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House," "Hud" and "Hotel") and Ruth Bertin (Fay Wray, who also participated in another movie the same year that some movie fans may know about, "King Kong"). The relationship between these two gets the second most amount of screen time after the bodies and the vampire chasing. I found ... Read More
Rating:  - Poor 1930's Horror Flick
The Vampire Bat is a really lame horror flick. How lame? Consider its plot and ask yourself just how many times have you seen the same basic scenario.
The Vampire Bat is set in the village of Klineschloss where villagers are found dead, drained of their blood with two small holes in their necks. Naturally, everyone suspects that a vampire is at work. Of course superstitious villagers start running around with torches.
Dwight Frye has a significant role in this flick as the red herring. This may very well be Frye's best performance of all time. However, that is more than counterbalanced by the strikingly poor performances of horror regulars Lionel Atwill & Fay Wray not to mention Melvyn Douglas.
The Vampire Bat is a pretty lame flick that is a waste of your time and money.
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